A smart card is a plastic card into which an integrated circuit (IC) may be installed, and may be similar to a credit card. When used as a subscriber identification module (SIM) card, the smart card may be manufactured to be small enough to be included into a mobile phone.
Standards for smart card technology have been defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) of the International Electronic Committee (IEC). The International standard series ISO/IEC 7816 defines various characteristics of smart cards, such as physical properties, physical connections, electronic signals, transmission protocols, commands, security architectures, application identifiers, and general data elements.
In the field of mobile communications, the smart card has been used as both an ID card for identifying a subscriber and as a card for processing billing information (such as an electronic bill) throughout most of European countries. Smart cards for communications may be classified according to the types of networks used. For example, in the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) environment, a SIM card that has a subscriber authentication function and a roaming function may be used. Accordingly, a communications service provider may issue a SIM card to a subscriber, and a subscriber who holds the SIM card can freely use communications services via a mobile terminal that is configured to accept the SIM card.
SIM cards have been developed as a platform for data services, for example, by European providers who have provided GSM-based mobile communications services. In particular, mobile communications providers have determined that mobile electronic commerce may be a significant part of wireless Internet strategies to provide various services. To provide such data services, a universal serial bus (USB) interface may be installed into the SIM card. The USB interface may enable transmission of a relatively large amount of data at a relatively high speed.
However, since the smart card may store information, such as a residential registration number, a credit card number, and/or billing information, a security function may be additionally included into the smart card to limit access to such information.